Week of Workouts to Commence for Cavaliers

With the 2011 NBA Draft just over two weeks away, the Cleveland Cavaliers have begun their second wave of workouts with the team hosting a handful of potential lottery selections and second-round prospects within the coming days.

With the first-overall selection all but placed on the placard above the podium in the Prudential Center, the Cavaliers appear primed to pinpoint players who will be available with their second lottery selection as well as some who could fall to them later in the draft. Chief among those awaiting an arrival to Cleveland is Enes Kanter, the 6-foot-11-inch center out of Turkey that has been pegged to go anywhere from the second-overall selection down to the fifth and continues to be one of the more-discussed players heading into draft night.

Recently withdrawing his name from a potential workout with the Washington Wizards (selecting sixth overall), Kanter has used a very successful NBA combine to vault his name into consideration with both Duke’s Kyrie Irving – who will allegedly be in Cleveland on Thursday, his only scheduled NBA workout – and Arizona’s Derrick Williams in the previously two-man top tier of talent.  With a workout in Toronto on Monday, Kanter will travel to Cleveland on Tuesday where he will work out alone as to not negatively impact his presently lofty draft status; a move made famous by Yi Jianlian who opted to only work out against furniture and the occasional coach in 2007.

This past Friday, Kanter had a private workout with the Utah Jazz (selecting third overall), but both parties have placed a self-imposed gag order on the outcome.  Considered to be a wild card, as they select between the Cavaliers first- and fourth-overall selections, Utah has been widely considered to be taking a point guard with their pick to replace the recently-departed Deron Williams.  Having a frontcourt which consists of Mehmet Okur (coincidentally also from Turkey), Al Jefferson, Derrick Favors and Paul Millsap, prevailing perception is that the Kanter workout is merely a smokescreen to entice a trade in the event that a team desperately wants the bruising big man.

Continuing to be in consideration with regard to the fourth-overall selection, Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciuans has yet to have a confirmed workout slated in Cleveland.

This Friday, as tweeted by WFNY earlier last week, the Cavaliers will host Providence shooting guard Marshon Brooks.  Also an excellent performer at the Chicago-based combine, Brooks will provide his future employer with an aggressive scoring option as well as above average rebounding for a guard – the 6-foot-5-inch Brooks averaged 7.0 rebounds per game in 2010-11, arguably the easiest trait to translate to the NBA level.  Brooks is thought to have a ceiling that could land him in the lottery, but could potentially slip down the draft if a team in the early teens shifts the landscape with a surprise selection.

With the Cavaliers understandably attempting to bolster their wing positions, Villanova shooting guard Corey Stokes is expected to be in Cleveland on Sunday. Stokes is expected to be a second-round selection due to his length (6-foot-9-inch wingspan) and excellent shooting; during his senior campaign with the Wildcats, Stokes shot 43.2 percent from three-point range and 89.4 percent from the free throw line. A bit one-dimensional, Stokes could flourish at the next level if placed into a situation where he is able to catch-and-shoot with range reportedly up to 25 feet.

Previous workouts held by Grant and his staff include Tennessee power forward Tobais Harris, Kansas power forward Marcus Morris, Maryland power forward Jordan Williams, Florida State small forward Chris Singleton, Texas point guard Corey Joseph (remember him?), and Iowa State point guard Diante Garrett. The six-man workout reportedly resulted in Morris being the most impressive player with the 6-foot-5-inch Garrett turning some heads and elevating his name a bit among those with second-round potential.

With four selections in the upcoming draft, the Cavaliers could conceivably add another via their Traded Player Exception or by purchasing a selection from a team looking to relieve themselves of the commitment involved with a first-round pick.  While it is understandable that the 2012 NBA Draft would be a better target due to the talent expected to be available, it will be very difficult for the Cavaliers to obtain anything of value in next year’s draft due to the protections (lottery, top-three, etc.) that the other party would impose on Chris Grant following the results of this past year’s trade with the Los Angeles Clippers which netted the Cavs the first-overall selection despite at 2.9 percent chance at said outcome.

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Update: Kanter’s workout will now involve Marcus Morris (second workout) as well as Tristan Thompson.